Speaking of Team Dignitas, during the Chilean National Finals d.Killer defeated NrG.Darkness 2-0. xLs.Cruza will be joining Killer and Darkness with a paid trip to the 2012 Battle.net South American Championship.

Killer never dropped a map in the whole tournament, 2-0'ing all of his opponents.

The Chinese National finals began today. I do not know of a stream for this, but I think the top 3 favorites to take this are TooDming, Loner, and MacSed.

The France National Finals are this Thursday through Sunday. The obvious favorite is Mill.Stephano, however there are 8 other zergs in this tournament and it's safe to say Stephano's ZvZ is not his best matchup. I still don't think he'll be defeated.

I'll continue to update the WCS tournaments, as during the month of July I believe all of the smaller nationals will be done.

I think the Sweden Nationals will be a great event. Bischu, Naniwa, Sjow, Thorzain, and even LaLush (#1 in points for the TSL 4 qualifier) will be there, among others.

For premier tournaments, HomeStory Cup V will be taking place this Thursday through Sunday. This is must-watch SC2 action. HSC has been known for being one of the most entertaining tournaments in the scene. Liquipedia Link

Oh, I almost forgot to include the latest information on the 2012 OGN Starleague Season 1. This will be the first season that the OGN Starleague is starcraft 2. This tournament will probably be one of the best of the whole year.

OGN decided to seed in 4 players. Those 4 players are 4 of the most accomplished Starcraft 2 players in the world. SK.MC, MVP.DongRaeGu, LG-IM.Nestea, and LG-IM.MVP all received direct seeding.

Some qualifiers occurred either today or yesterday and here is an image of all the qualified players so far.

There will be separate qualifiers for the KESPA players (like Flash and Jaedong).

Homestory Cup V has begun. Day 1 is over. This tournament is beyond entertaining to watch because the players are all relaxed and having a good time. Although the hours are not ideal for non-Germans/europeans, it's still worth tuning in when you can.

Group A Nerchio and Naama advanced. I personally thought it would be Nerchio and Socke, but Socke struggled at the event.

Group B Idra and Bling advanced. Idra dominated his opponents going 3-0 with a 6-1 overall map score. The Grack Is Back! Bling didn't know he advanced because he actually lost the set to Cloud but he had a better map score so he still moved on (this is why tournaments need to adopt the GSL format in 4 man groups)

Group C Happy and Ret advanced. Incontrol went 1-6 and ReaL displayed some really weird strategies against Ret.

Group D SaSe and Dimaga moved on. These are 2 guys who could very well take the whole tournament and I was not too surprised to see them be the two advancing.

Groups E-H will be played out tomorrow.

Also this weekend is the WCS France Nationals being played out. I'll give updates on that after the event but won't be watching any of it (maybe the finals).

Group E I think MC and HasuObs will move on. However I think TLO could very well replace Hasuobs there.

Group F I think we will see MaNa and Sleep move on. Mana recently won Dreamhack and a qualifier for the TSL4 and Sleep has been playing great since joining xSix and getting to go to tournaments all over the world. His ZvZ is quite strong so I think that will play advantage in a group with 2 other zergs and 1 protoss.

Group G I think we will see Sheth and YongHwa move on. YongHwa is a relatively unknown player but he's Korean so he'll probably do extremely well. slivko might make it past instead of sheth...

Group H I believe we will see MVP and Golden move on.

Because this is a four day tournament I believe the day after these groups we will see Group stage number two and then the final day will be the Top 8 being played out in a bracket. quarterfinals is bo5 and semis are bo5. finals are b07 and there is a third place match apparently.

Group E MC and Hasuobs advanced
Group F Sleep and Snute advanced
Group G YongHwa and slivko advanced
Group H MVP and Golden advanced

6 out of 8 on my predictions.

The next group stage has been set.

Group A:
idrA
Happy
Sleep
Hasuobs

Group B:
YongHwa
Nerchio
Bling
Snute

Group C:
Sase
MC
Slivko
Dimaga

Group D:
Golden
MVP
Ret
Naama

These are all really strong groups that will be hard to predict.

Group A I think it'll be idrA and Sleep, however I wouldn't be surprised with either Happy or Hasu advancing. Hasu hasn't been playing as well at this tournament so far as I thought he might, though.

Group B I think YongHwa and Nerchio will advanced. I don't think Bling will be able to make it out giving his lackluster performance as of late and Snute may be able to make it past...

Group C I think Sase and MC will advance although I really think Dimaga may advance over Sase.

Group D I think it'll be Golden and MVP advancing. You never know with Ret, and he performed quite well in the first group stage so I think he can take games off of any of the players in his group. Especially because Zerg has been playing very well against terran.

I don't watch GSL because I don't want to alter my sleep schedule to get rest before watching or just stay up. It generally doesn't start until 1 or 2 am here and I like to be in bed before that.

I was surprised naniwa took it to game 5. i don't like him at all but he's quite good. DRG is my second favorite korean behind MMA so it's nice to see him be the best in the world right now.

Byun beating nestea 3-0 was surprising. Still good to see this guy dominating again after the Match Fixing Scandal.

I love the way the bracket is. Byun (T) is facing Seed (P). These are the two more up and coming unknown players. Then below that DRG (Z) is facing MC (P). These are the two established previous GSL champions.

This assures the finals will be like last season with an up and comer against an established big name player. I think I'll be staying up for the finals, especially because they're scheduling them and the GSTL finals around the same date(s) on a beach in South Korea.

I hope that Byun beats Seed and DRG beats MC, and then DRG goes on to win his second GSL championship.

Both Seed and Byun have been dominating since RO32 so those games will surely be good.

gsl was using a version of the map without a neutral supply depot at the ramp, and byun used a double bunker contain for the easy win. although nestea scouted the proxy rax, i dont think he was aware of the lack of a depot (most players prly just assume without even ever looking)
but overall, byun just outplayed nestea.